Cruel fate of 3 Soviet heroes: To die alone in the universe, the body is still warm!

The body of the spacecraft commander still had some warmth left. Every attempt to cure is unsuccessful. You left before you returned to your motherland.

In the 60s and 70s of the last century, the bloodless war between the United States and the Soviet Union (Cold War) still took place. Both Americans and Soviets raced against each other for weapons, technology and space programs that cost billions of dollars.

If the Soviet Union "opened the gun" with the event of bringing people () out of the Earth's attraction to fly out into space, satisfying the thousand-year dream of mankind on April 12, 1961, then the US, Of course, never had to sit still, "shoot the next bigger gun" with the event of bringing people for the first time in history to the Moon on July 20, 1969.

Only a few years later, the Soviets "retaliated" with unprecedented technological achievements in history: Developing the Salyut Program with the mission of building the first space station of humanity in space. This huge project was implemented by the Soviet Union for 15 consecutive years, from 1971 to 1986.

April 19, 1971 .

When the Americans were still not happy with the Apollo program to bring NASA's successful Lunar people to the moon, the Soviet Union quickly smashed that joy with the event that attracted the attention of the whole World: The space station has the first crew in history to explore the human space, Salyut 1, successfully launched out of Earth orbit.

Not only bringing people to space, now the Soviet Union can do the same thing that people have never dared to dream of: Living and working in large spaces.

Image of the Soviet Salyut 1 space station.

In 15 years of implementation, the Salyut Program broke a series of records of out-of-space flights, including a time record - the longest time the crew was out of space (23 days). ).

Of course, the US and NASA understand the difficulties faced by the Salyut Program, the premise mission plays an extremely important role in developing technology for space stations in the future, they have been led. head is quite far away in the space race with the Soviet Union.

But.

The first mission to launch a successful human space station in history has been overshadowed by an unforgettable tragedy in Soviet aviation history .

When performing the rescue mission of the Soyuz 11 spacecraft, horrified teammates found them dead in their seats. The pain in his face was hard to describe. Blood oozes from the ears and nose, forming harsh red streaks .

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For the first time in the history of the world, the Soviet Union established a record of manufacturing and successfully launching a space station with people living outside the space (Salyut 1 Station) .

And also for the first time, bitter history confirming the death of the crew on the Soyuz 11 spacecraft was tragically killed first and only in space (as of 2018).

Early morning on June 30, 1971 .

Both Soviets are excited to welcome their three cosmic heroes back to Earth after a 23-day mission of living and working in outer space.

The crew on the Soyuz 11 then consisted of three people: Georgy Dobrovolsky (Commander of the ship) - Vladislav Volkov (Train driver) - Viktor Patsayev (Engineer).

Back a bit about the 1960s, at this time, the Soviet Union is developing the Soyuz Program , which is a manned space travel program, based on two Soyuz spacecraft development missions and Soyuz missiles. .

After the launch of the Salyut space station on April 19, 1971, more than a month later, the Soviet Union planned to launch a spacecraft connected to the Salyut 1 station, to bring astronauts to work and maintain Salyut. first.

And the three-person Soyuz 11 crew, commanded by Lieutenant General Georgy Dobrovolsky, was on the way to carry out that noble mission. On June 7, 1971, Soyuz 11 was launched into space from the Baikonur Cosmodrome Cosmodrome - the Cosmodrome is the world's first and largest spacecraft launch facility to date.

One day after moving, Soyuz 11 crew "landed" successfully to Salyut station 1. 22 days 18 hours is the total time crew members live and work in Salyut 1 - Up to that time, personnel No one has lived so long in the universe.

After successfully completing the mission on Salyut 1, on June 30, 1971, Soyuz 11 received orders to return to Earth.

Neither the crew of the three cosmic talents, neither the Soviets nor the public interested in the world will ever know of an imminent aviation tragedy!

Soyuz's dark fate 11

Soyuz 11 weighs more than 6.7 tons. The ship consists of three main parts, however when performing landing on the ground, only the cockpit takes care of this task. The landing process is done automatically. Under the plan, before reaching a reasonable height, the screws will automatically open to separate the main cockpit from the rest of the ship.

However, things did not go as planned: The screws instead burst out like design but exploded at the same time. The consequences of the explosion caused the cockpit's body to crack and start leaking air out into space.

Since the process of landing on the ground automatically, the command post on the ground did not know this special incident on the cockpit until it landed. Therefore, the crew is forced to handle the vital problem.

It is worth mentioning here that, if not quickly finding and welding the crack, the ship not only lost the ability to navigate but also risk killing the crew. The worrying thing has come true! All three astronauts died before returning home. The rescue team found the body of commander Georgy Dobrovolsky still warm!

Three talented Soviet astronauts died before returning to Earth.(Illustration).

Find the cause of death

From the data recorded in the cockpit equipped with biomedical sensors, investigators later found that the hearts of the three astronauts stopped after 40 seconds since the leak occurred.

Further investigations also gave the same conclusion that the cockpit was completely normal, even without any signs of cracks or leaks on the cockpit body! The doctors concluded that Soyuz 11 crew died from suffocation!

These conclusions do not satisfy the public. Soviet leaders ordered an autopsy of three ill-fated astronauts. Doctors at Burdenko Military Hospital and discovered the cause of death matched with brain hemorrhage, under the skin, ears and nose.

These manifestations show that Soyuz 11 has been exposed to a non-gravity environment for too long, causing oxygen and nitrogen in the dilated blood vessels to form a balloon causing a rupture. Blood tests also find high levels of lactic acid, a sign of extreme physiological stress.

From a scientific perspective, the cause of the three astronauts' deaths was because they had lived too long in the universe. In addition, the fact that they did not wear a traveling suit when returning to Earth partly contributed to the cause of the crew's death.

The TASS news agency also tried to reduce the tragic level of Soyuz 11 crew and headed for the bright side of the more than 20-day mission of three ill-fated astronauts.

History forever remembers Soviet heroes

Hours before the tragedy occurred, the Soviets were still eagerly waiting for Soyuz spaceship crew 11. But they did not return home forever! That "round-trip" journey only ended when Soyuz 11's cockpit went to the ground indefinitely, inside it were intact corpses but no vitality.

The Soviets honored them as nationally solemn heroes who placed their bodies at the Red Square Kremlin's Wall, next to the "cosmic legend" Yuri Gagarin.

Americans remember their mission. When the Apollo 15 ship took the American astronauts to the moon, the crew also engraved the names of three Soviet astronauts on a memorial plaque for those who had sacrificed for the world's cosmic mission. On the surface of the Moon, three meteor craters are named after Soviet heroes: Georgy Dobrovolsky - Vladislav Volkov - Viktor Patsayev.

Despite the sadness, the world aviation history is forever grateful to them, because, thanks to their heroic sacrifice, the flight into space afterwards is safer!